ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) Upgraded by Sidoti to “Strong-Buy”

Sidoti upgraded shares of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on ALLETE in a report on Saturday. They issued a hold rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $62.00.

ALLETE Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ALE opened at $64.19 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $62.33. ALLETE has a 52 week low of $49.29 and a 52 week high of $65.86. The stock has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.43 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 1.45.

ALLETE (NYSE:ALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.87 by ($0.30). ALLETE had a return on equity of 7.07% and a net margin of 14.36%. The business had revenue of $354.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $547.24 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

ALLETE Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.7005 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. ALLETE’s dividend payout ratio is 67.79%.

Institutional Trading of ALLETE

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in ALLETE during the second quarter worth $74,000. Water Island Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ALLETE during the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,583,000. Creative Planning increased its stake in ALLETE by 204.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 20,972 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,308,000 after acquiring an additional 14,076 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC raised its position in ALLETE by 16.5% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 40,988 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,556,000 after purchasing an additional 5,808 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in ALLETE by 955.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 897,622 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,967,000 after purchasing an additional 812,548 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.55% of the company’s stock.

ALLETE Company Profile

ALLETE, Inc operates as an energy company. The company operates through Regulated Operations, ALLETE Clean Energy, and Corporate and Other segments. It generates electricity from coal-fired, biomass co-fired / natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, and solar. In addition, the company provides regulated utility electric services in northwestern Wisconsin to approximately 15,000 electric customers, 13,000 natural gas customers, and 10,000 water customers, as well as regulated utility electric services in northeastern Minnesota to approximately 150,000 retail customers and 14 non-affiliated municipal customers.